the sphinx was a philosophy of government set in stone. it depicted the king as fearless, cunning and brave as the lion. and as crucial to egypt as the nile itself. the king was not just a political leader but a religious leader too. in the minds of the ancient egyptians, the pharaoh's power and authority as a king stretched far beyond the boundaries of his country-- and into the cosmos itself. after death, he would escape the earthly bounds of his tomb, board a solar boat and sail into immortality. this vision became material in objects and images founin the tombs and temples as a way of pre-ordaining a central idea: after a perilousnd carefully prescribed journey through the night, the king would become one with the sun god re. the king becomes associated with re in particular because of the idea that the sun is born every day out of the womb of the sky, and then comes into the world and goes into the body of the sky at night. and the king in his cycle, in his daily comings and goings, is seen to be like the sun. (narrator) the idea that